Official: Google Panda Refresh On November 5th (Version 21)

Nov 7, 2012 • 8:45 am | comments (39) by twitter Google+ | Filed Under Google PageRank & Algorithm Updates
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Google Panda Update #21We have a confirmed Google Panda update that happened this past Monday, November 5th.

This would be the 21st Panda refresh or update we have on record. Before that, we had version 20 on September 27th, which was about five-plus weeks ago.

Danny Sullivan confirmed the update at Search Engine Land. Typically I'd try to post about this in more real time or before they are confirmed, but I've been offline for a bit.

This refresh impacts about 0.4% of queries that a regular user might notice and 1.1% of the United States in English searches.

Google tweeted:

Past Google Panda Update:

Forum discussion at Digital Point Forums & WebmasterWorld.

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Comments:

SEOChris

11/07/2012 02:10 pm

Hopefully we will get a Penguin refresh soon to see if the Disavow Links Tool actually works.

Josh

11/07/2012 03:13 pm

Saw an overall boost on Monday on 95% of all sites. Thanks for the share, it's nice to see Google rewarding good SEO's finally who follow these updates and algo changes. Hopefully a Penguin refresh will help others, too. Good share!

Josh

11/07/2012 03:13 pm

Good call!

ubound

11/07/2012 04:00 pm

Danny mentioned Nov 5th but the tweet by Googler is from Nov 6...

Ismael Verón

11/07/2012 06:30 pm

Once again.. I got crashed by this last update..

Imran

11/07/2012 08:13 pm

Wow you are back again I am happy :)

Mike Hunt

11/07/2012 09:00 pm

Also an Google PR update?

Yakezie

11/07/2012 11:31 pm

Hmmm... so is possibly the reason why traffic is surging on Financial Samurai, and not b/c of post election and more electricity back on on the east coast? I'm being serious here, b/c I'm looking at 50% increases in MoM traffic for Monday, Tuesday, and today 11/7. But, since only 1.1% of english queries are affected, chances are, the Penguin update is not the case. Sam

WebMagz.net

11/08/2012 06:14 am

I have noticed slightly boost up on my site :)

SutraLite

11/08/2012 06:25 am

I am Awaiting to test this out, after penguin refresh. How it works?

angelina dom

11/08/2012 07:43 am

Wow sounds great . Excited to see this. As still using penguin disavow

Praveen Sharma

11/08/2012 08:52 am

Saw a 20% hike in traffic after this update on one of my websites. Good and real content really putting you up.

newyorker_1

11/08/2012 09:31 am

PR update also happened but strangely no one speaks about it.

freelance seo

11/08/2012 10:27 am

How it works?

ash

11/08/2012 11:06 am

lol "Good Seo's" could not stop laughing after reading that. What you are doing today after following these updates may be the reason for penalties 2 years down the line (that's what happened with penguin remember)

ash

11/08/2012 11:06 am

looks like google decided to wait for you going offline to release their update. Psst..... when is Barry going offline... on 5th Nov...lets release a update then...

jacobstefen

11/08/2012 12:17 pm

What i figured out is that this update or might be coming ones are the reason behind the launch of disavow tool... they had asked people to give spamy links... people did and now every one will suffer with updated spam box

Eyepaq

11/08/2012 12:19 pm

remember remember the fifth of november...

Josh

11/08/2012 01:40 pm

Hey, IMHO there is a huge difference between a Good and Bad SEO and thus, link profile.

Nick Stamoulis

11/08/2012 02:34 pm

Just remember that Google is looking at your disavow list as a suggestion. They don't have to actually make any changes if they don't feel they are necessary. I know that might be frustrating for a lot of site owners but I don't want people thinking that the Disavow Tool is a magic wand to make all their mistakes vanish.

Nick Ker

11/08/2012 03:40 pm

Penguin simply enforced rules that had been there for quite a while. Just because "everyone" was getting spammy links with too many of the same keyword-rich anchor texts doesn't mean that it wasn't against the Webmaster Guidelines. There were overpromotion penalties and filters long before Penguin. They just weren't as strictly enforced. If you use your head, have a good quality site/content, and promote it sensibly instead of trying to work around the algorithms, you will still be just fine when Google decides to crack down on the latest wave of algo-chasing spammers (I am looking at you, low quality guest bloggers and spam press releases).

Josh

11/08/2012 04:53 pm

Because nobody cares enough. There are bigger fish to fry.

Josh

11/08/2012 04:54 pm

I've also seen a major boost in sites that push new content, too.

Josh

11/08/2012 04:55 pm

Agreed.

HowtoFormanLLC.org

11/08/2012 06:19 pm

I see allot of people say this had to do with constantly putting up new content, how often do you blog/throw out fresh content on your site?

Hillz

11/08/2012 06:25 pm

You keep patting yourselves on the back. Continue believing Google cares about your “quality site/content”....while some of us try to hedge ourselves from Google’s insanity. It would be nice if I could get a penny for every “white hat” site that has vanished for the top spots....i’d be a milionaire....if not a billionaire!

Vandhana Karthick

11/08/2012 06:26 pm

What is your website and have you done to increase the same?

Nick Ker

11/08/2012 07:07 pm

If I had a penny for every webmaster who got slapped for trying to outsmart Google, then blamed Google for enforcing its rules...

Nick Ker

11/08/2012 08:19 pm

There isn't any special frequency for posting new content. The important thing is that whatever you do put out is good, not just filler intended to meet some perceived quota. If you can consistently put out good content, that will help, but many sites rank well even when they have not changed at all in months. The advice that a lot of people throw out about having to blog daily or more often is just a misinterpretation of Google's advice about "fresh, regularly updated content". The idea is that if you have an active and up to date site, people will like it more, therefore it will be more popular - not "you must post X number of pages per day/week/month". If you have seen a drop in your rankings recently for "how to form an llc", you are likely having a problem as a result of the 'Exact Match Domain' update. Domains like yours have gotten a free ride in the SERPs for some time whether you had any decent incoming links or not. Now, if the site is not "popular" (well linked) and doesn't have outstanding content, it won't automatically rank high like it used to. So make sure your site's on page optimization (and its content) is top notch before adding a bunch of new content in the hopes of improving your rankings. Also, if you check OpenSiteExplorer and MajesticSEO, you only have about a dozen domains that link to yours. You would want to work on getting some more good sites to link to what you have to offer.

Hillz

11/08/2012 08:25 pm

That would be awsome to :). Point im stressing is it really doesn't matter what hat you're wearing (white/black/blue/pink/whatever)....it's irelevent. G can, and they will smack you regardless. And after you get smacked the brown nosers and Google will call you a spammer. So the way i see it, webmasters might want to focus their efforts on building more stable traffic sources that don’t depend too heavily on Google. So in the event that you get smacked, it really won’t hurt that much.

SEO

11/08/2012 09:08 pm

Each Panda affects ~1% * 23 updates = 23% total ^^

Nick Ker

11/08/2012 09:09 pm

Here's the thing, Hillz: I have still not seen any "white hat" sites get smacked that did not at least have some noticeable quality issues like the appearance lots of duplicate content due to the site's structure, or "innocently" keyword stuffed titles because the webmaster "read somewhere" that you must use your keyword X number of times in the title. And those have usually been able to fix the problems and move forward. Closest thing I have seen to a truly clean site being penalized would be decent quality sites that the owners didn't know better when a cheap hosting company steered them toward some "get in google" package that was essentially spam link building. You make an excellent point - it is a very good idea to make sure you are not relying too heavily on any one traffic source. And oddly enough, if you are following Google's advice to the letter - creating great content and being a good internet citizen - you are very likely diversifying sources anyway through social media, making connections with like-minded site operators, building links that actually yield some visits... I think it is just that so many people have this outdated notion that the internet is a magical place where all you have to do is throw together any old site, get some links, spam some forums and Google, out of the kindness of their hearts, will make you an overnight success. It isn't 1998 anymore, but some people still want there to be a fast and easy way to the top. After all, it is the interwebs - "can't you just push a button and make it happen right now?" So we end up with a lot of: "What?! I have to write my own website copy? I thought I could just republish from other sites... What do you mean by 'links from good quality sites'? How can I get those? Where do I sign up to get them? Oh, I have to earn those links by having a great site or something people will like more than the thousands of other sites that are just like mine - and then get to know who is who within my niche and reach out to those people? Screw that - I got an email yesterday saying they would get me 1000 penguin-friendly backlinks for $100. I will try that instead..." And then they show up here to cry about how google destroyed the business they worked so hard to build.

Praveen Sharma

11/09/2012 03:41 am

Nothing new, we just posted genuine content on our website, 4-5 times a week. We were getting a constant traffic until 4th of November but noticed an increase in the traffic from 5th.

Praveen Sharma

11/09/2012 03:42 am

4-5 times a week.

James Barker

11/09/2012 11:21 am

Not true. What if it was the same queries affected 23 times? Not saying that is the case, but your logic assumes that the queries are different every time, which I strongly doubt.

Jobs in Cape Town

11/09/2012 09:38 pm

Good point. Wish it could be more than a magic wand

Brett Burridge

11/15/2012 09:22 am

Google know shit about what's good content.

Praveen Sharma

11/15/2012 09:27 am

I am not sure about others, but mine was considered.

Harris

11/27/2012 07:36 am

After Penguin refresh i my site approx 15 percent hike in search engine ranking, Recently i update my website content and got amazing result after Update.

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